


Xeno Linguistics

by ioanite



Category: Alien vs Predator (2004), Atlantis: The Lost Empire (2001)
Genre: Community: disney_kink, Crossovers & Fandom Fusions, Gen, Mild Gore, Prompt Fill
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-05
Updated: 2014-12-05
Packaged: 2018-02-28 06:25:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 973
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2722067
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ioanite/pseuds/ioanite
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Milo was happy to reunite with the old gang to explore a never before seen pyramid. At least, until they got inside...</p>
            </blockquote>





	Xeno Linguistics

**Author's Note:**

> The Prompt: 
> 
> "The Atlantis team get called to investigate this strange temple deep beneath the Antarctic ice..."

It was supposed to have been a simple mission. Whitmore had sent the old crew back to Atlantis to request Milo’s help in translating a remarkable new discovery. Scientists had recently discovered a pyramid in the arctic wastes, and the inscriptions on it were in no language anyone could recognize. The scientific team who had discovered it were already in the process of exploring it, but they wanted a translator so they could document every scrap of the place. Thus, Whitmore extended the invitation to Milo (and Kida, if she was willing) to come to the surface briefly and provide them with a proper translation. Kida was curious to see the outside world, and the challenge of a new language appealed to Milo, so they agreed, assuming they would be there for two weeks at the most.

Little did they know what actually awaited them there…  
***

“They’re breaking through!” Milo yelped, catching a glimpse of a slick black head through the rubble, “Whatever you’re planning to do, do it fast!”

“Give us a second!” Audrey shot back, as she and Vinny fiddled with some of the explosives he’d brought along (“In case one of the hallways is blocked or something” he’d explained with a grin).

“We don’t _have_ a second!” Milo answered, as a skeletal black arm shot through a gap in the rocks and retreated a moment later, “And what’s going on with Mole?”

“No word yet!” Audrey said, tossing Milo what looked like a small satchel with a piece of twine sticking out of it, “He’ll come back once he’s found a safe area!”

“That’s assuming he hasn’t been eaten by these, these… _things_!” Kida snarled from her vantage point on top of a column, looking down at the approaching monsters. Milo passed the packet to Sweet, who lit the fuse and tossed it up to Kida. She took a second to aim, then tossed it over the makeshift barricade Vinny had made. Milo couldn’t see where it landed, but seconds later, the ground shook, a loud _Bang!_ roared in their ears, and they heard the eerie screams that the creatures made whenever they were threatened. “Kida?”

She cursed softly in Atlantean. “It killed a few of them, but most of them just fell back and are moving forward again. It gave us another minute at most!”

“How are there so many of them?” Audrey said, as she and Vinny quickly set to work making another bomb, “I didn’t think the scientific expedition was that big!”

Milo remembered the deserted campsite they’d found when they arrived, large enough for at least fifty people. “Others probably came in to investigate when the scientists didn’t return. And they…wound up the same as the ones we found in the sacrificial chamber.” He rested a hand on his stomach almost involuntarily, willing himself not to throw up at the memory.

 _“Venez!”_ A French voice hissed, and Milo turned round in relief to see Mole’s head poking up through the hole he’d dug, “I have found a chamber lower down in the pyramid! Hopefully it will take a while for the animals to reach it!”

Kida vaulted down from the column and joined the others as they slid down the tunnel, Vinny remaining behind just long enough to blow the entrance. The group moved as fast as they could, hands slipping on the damp earth and clumps of ice, before emerging into a medium-sized chamber. There was one entrance which was currently closed, and no obvious vents for things to crawl through. It was as safe as they could hope for. Milo leaned against a nearby wall to catch his breath, his eyes already noting the symbols on the wall and starting to translate them. At this point, every scrap of information came in handy.

“So, what do we do now?” Sweet asked, brushing the dirt off his shoulders and eyeing the door skeptically, “I’m guessing it’ll be about five minutes before they start making their way deeper.”

Kida rubbed her arms uncomfortably. “I have a suggestion. It’s a risk, but…”

“As long as it’s a smaller risk than getting eaten by those things, I’m all for it.” Audrey responded.

Kida gestured to one of the paintings on the wall, which showed a hulking figure shoving a spear at a skeletal reptile. “According to the carvings, this was a hunting ground for…space hunters. And we’ve seen evidence that there’s at least one of them here with us now. The green liquid on the ground, the dead monsters that appear to have been sliced through, those odd clicking noises. Clearly, these hunters have experience dealing with beasts. And it doesn’t seem interesting in harming us.”

Milo got her meaning a second before everyone else did. “I don’t know, Kida,” he said, looking back at the wall carvings, “Who’s to say it won’t turn on us after it’s finished disposing of the monsters? And we don’t have anything to offer it in exchange; it’s not going to be a particularly strong alliance.”

“We don’t have much choice,” Kida answered, coming over to him and grabbing at his bags, “Can you figure out their language?”

“I think I’ve got the basics. But…”

“It’ll have to do,” she said, opening his satchel and pulling out pen, ink, and a map, “Get to work.”

“What am I writing?”

“Any variation of ‘Help us’ that you think it will understand. Then we hold it up and hope for the best.”

“And how to you expect us to find it?” Sweet asked, “Go crawling back up the tunnel and start wandering around, holding up the sign and praying we don’t run into any of the lizard-things?”

Kida shook her head, peering at the corners of the room, eyes flicking from shadow to shadow, “I have a feeling that it’ll find us.”


End file.
